Dashdorzhiin Natsagdorzh

Born circa Nov. 17, 1906, in Baian-Delger, Central Aimak; died July 13, 1937, in Ulan Bator. Mongolian writer. Member of the Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party from 1922.

Natsagdorzh was educated in the USSR (Leningrad, 1925) and in Germany (Berlin, Leipzig, 1926–29). He turned to socialist realism after having mastered the best traditions of Mongolian literature and assimilated the Russian classics, Soviet literature, and European literature. The inner world of man is at the center of his work. One of the founders of contemporary Mongolian literature, Natsagdorzh is best known for his poems “My Homeland” (1934; Russian translation, 1956) and “Four Seasons” (1934; Russian translation, 1956), his propaganda verse cycle Health, his short stories “The Lama’s Tears” (1930) and “Son of the Old World” (1930), his lyrical prose miniatures Village Beauty, and his musical drama At the Three Hills (1934; Russian translation, 1956). In 1966 the Mongolian People’s Republic instituted the Natsagdorzh Prize, the republic’s highest literary award. The Natsagdorzh Memorial Museum has been opened in Ulan Bator, where a monument to Natsagdorzh has also been erected (sculptor L. Makhbal).